The focus in the first half is on catching up in revenue and sustaining profit progress

First-quarter revenue was ¥75.853 billion, operating profit was ¥3.654 billion, ordinary profit was ¥4.098 billion, and net profit attributable to owners of the parent was ¥3.095 billion. Year on year, revenue increased 6.0%, operating profit 11.2%, ordinary profit 25.0% and net profit 23.5%, with profit-line growth exceeding top-line growth.

The full-year plan calls for revenue of ¥320.0 billion, operating profit of ¥14.5 billion, ordinary profit of ¥15.0 billion and net profit of ¥10.5 billion. First-quarter progress rates were 23.7%, 25.2%, 27.3% and 29.5%, respectively. Operating profit progress was 1.5 percentage points ahead of revenue progress, while net profit progress was 5.8 points ahead, putting profit slightly ahead of plan at this stage. However, the company had not revised its full-year revenue or profit forecasts as of the first quarter, so it remains to be confirmed whether this lead can be maintained for the full year.

By segment, first-quarter Textile revenue was ¥35.195 billion and operating profit was ¥1.571 billion, while Chemicals revenue was ¥40.365 billion and operating profit was ¥2.242 billion. Progress against the full-year plan was 22.7% for Textile revenue, 21.0% for Textile operating profit, 24.5% for Chemicals revenue and 28.0% for Chemicals operating profit, with Chemicals’ profit progress lifting the overall result. The company has not disclosed quantitative assumptions by business for seasonality or the first half.

Simply subtracting first-quarter results from the full-year plan leaves required results for the remaining period of revenue of ¥244.147 billion, operating profit of ¥10.846 billion and net profit of ¥7.405 billion. These are mechanical benchmarks for measuring progress, not the company’s first-half plan. At the next results announcement, the focus will be not only on whether cumulative first-half revenue, operating profit and net profit reach the half-year benchmarks of ¥160.0 billion, ¥7.25 billion and ¥5.25 billion, respectively, but also on whether the company discloses the remaining-period assumptions for foreign exchange, volumes, market conditions and the impact of risks.